The Venture Bros./Midlife Chrysalis

Midlife Chrysalis
Season 1, Episode 8
Airdate	September 25, 2004
Production Number	103
Written by	Doc Hammer Jackson Publick
Directed by	Jackson Publick
← 1x07 Ice Station - Impossible!	1x09 → Are You There God? It's Me, Dean
The Venture Bros. — Season One

Midlife Chrysalis is the eighth episode of the first season of The Venture Bros., and the ninth episode overall.

Voice Talent: James Urbaniak (Dr. Venture, Bartender), Michael Sinterniklaas (Dean Venture), Patrick Warburton (Brock Samson), Christopher McCulloch (Hank Venture, The Monarch, Monarch Henchman), Doc Hammer (Dr. Girlfriend/Charlene, Stripper), Paul Boocock (Fighter Pilot, O.S.I. Instructor)

Plot Overview

The Monarch sends Dr. Girlfriend undercover to seduce Dr. Venture in order to inject him with a body altering serum. Meanwhile, Brock is depressed when he learns his government license to kill has expired, but the boys are hell-bent on helping him cram for his government exam.

Notes

Revv Me Up Lyrics

(Verse 1)
I've got a heart like a prune
I want to snake through your dune
You know the moment is mine (mine)
I'm gonna slaughter some time
I want to spit some exhaust
I want to break through some frost

And when the moment is right, I'm gonna fly a kite

This ride is gonna be rough
This meat is gonna be tough
I've got a heart like a beet
I feel the gas in my feet
This naked preacher will play
He'll wrassle Satan today

And when the moment is right, I'm gonna go fly a kite

(Chorus)
This is the moment
The very instant
That we've all been waitin' for
No stupid gimmicks, or Halloween tricks

Let's get together and number our sores

A very pretty one
A very fancy one
That has my likeness thereon
Only drawn as if I were a drone

Let's get together and number our sores

(Verse 2)
This day I make my request
I put the sward to my chest
You see, it all comes down to this
"I'll knock you flat with a kiss"
I'm full of blood and pea-pods
I'm full of mud and corn-cobs

And when the moment is right, I'm gonna go fly a kite

This stunt is makin' it through
The game is nick-named P-U
I've got a heart like a welt
It's time to lift up my kilt
I'll rip the monkey to shreds
I'll make a shoe of his head

And when the moment is right, I'm gonna go fly a kite

(repeat Chorus)

(Chorus Break)
A quite disgusting one
A quite delightful one
With blood running splatters thereon
Only drawn like an explosion of scum

Let's get together and number our sores

A quite disgusting one
A quite delightful one
With a dead, headless monkey thereon
Like a airborne primate savior hanging ten

Let's get together and number our sores

Arc Advancement

Happenings

• Brock finds out his secret agent's license has expired. Hank and Dean help him prepare for his exam to get a new one. Brock actually fails both the physical and written portions of the exam, but the examiner lets him pass anyway.

• Dr. Venture starts dating a beautiful woman who is Dr. Girlfriend in disguise. She injects him with a serum that turns him into a caterpillar-like creature. Dr. Girlfriend feels bad about it, so she later injects him with the antidote, returning him to normal. They may or may not have sex during their dating, which creates conflict between Dr. Girlfriend and The Monarch.

Characters

• Dr. Venture: We find out a lot about Dr. Venture in this episode. He is forty-three years old, and won a science award in 1979. He almost tells the boys about their mother, but is interrupted by the arrival of Charlene (Dr. Girlfriend).

Trivia

The Show

• The work-out song, "Revv Me Up," was written and performed by Doc Hammer and Glenn Max, with lyrics by Terrance Fleming. The song is credited as being by Jasper McVayne, a fake band which has "terrible songs in every generation." According to the commentary, Doc Hammer wrote most of the music because Max doesn't make purposefully bad music.
• There are two instances where black bars cover up sexual organs in the episode. First, when Dr. Venture is at the strip club, the black bars are covering up the stripper's vagina, which wasn't drawn in the first place. However, later on, Dr. Venture's shedded skin does have a penis.

Behind the Scenes

• Although this episode aired eighth, it was the third episode produced and one of the first to be written by both of the series creators.

Allusions and References

• Yahtzee: Hank hits Dean, causing him to yell out "Yahtzee!" in a manner similar to "uncle" (signalizing surrender). Yahztee is a dice game produced by Hasbro where the object of the game is to score points by rolling certain combinations of numbers with five dice. A "Yahtzee" in the game is when all five dice show the same value during a player's turn.

• Mullet: Every epithet that the bartender uses for Brock is a dig on his haircut, a mullet. In a mullet, the hair is long at the back of the head, but cut shorter on the top, front, and sides of the head. The mullet has not been a popular style since the early 90's. Since then, it has become an object of ridicule in society.

• Jonny Quest: Brock's flashbacks include one where he snaps the neck of a native while his skin is dyed purple. One episode of Jonny Quest featured Race Bannon (whom Brock is loosely based on) dyeing himself purple to trick some natives into thinking he was a god.

• Studio 54: Dr. Venture says one of the stripper's faces had more lines on it than a mirror at Studio 54. Studio 54 was a popular disco in New York City that operated sporadically between 1976-1995. In the late 70's the club was famous for excessive hedonism, including rampant drug use. One of the decorations at the time was a giant coke spoon.

• Gunga Din: Hank refers to his new slave, Dean, as "Gunga Din". Gunga Din was an 1892 poem by Rudyard Kipling about an Indian water-bearer who saves the life of a British soldier. The poem was later adapted into a 1939 movie starring Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. and Cary Grant.

• UNIVAC: Dr. Venture claims his father invented UNIVAC. UNIVAC was a company that manufactured some of the earliest computers. Its founders were responsible for building ENIAC, long thought to be the first electronic computer capable of solving a full range of computing problems.

• Samson: While practicing for his Secret Agent's exam, Brock mentions tearing the jawbone out of a crocodile and using it as a boomerang to neutralize an enemy sniper. Brock's Old Testament namesake, Samson, was noted for his creative use of jawbones. "And he found a new jawbone of an ass, and put forth his hand, and took it, and slew a thousand men therewith."

• Rocky: Portions of Brock's training sequence are homages to the film Rocky, including the egg drink Hank gives him and the sweat suit that Hank wears. Rocky is the story of underdog fighter Rocky Balboa who works to challenge undefeated heavyweight champion Apollo Creed.

• Icarus: Rather than filling out the written portion of his secret agent's exam, Brock draws a picture of Icarus instead. Icarus was a young boy from Greek mythology who escaped from captivity on Crete with his father Daedalus by fabricating a pair of wax-bound feather wings. Ignoring his father's warnings, Icarus flew too close to the sun, causing the wax to melt and plunging the boy into the water. Icarus was part of the logo for the hard-rock band Led Zeppelin; this is the pose that Brock recreates in his drawing.